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Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Science
AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward
This July 10, 2008 file photo made with a fisheye lens shows ice floes in Baffin Bay above the Arctic Circle, seen from the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent.
Arctic posts record warmth over land, less ice in its ocean
NEW YORK — The warming Arctic has set another record. The average air temperature over Arctic land reached 2.3 degrees F (1.3 degrees C) above average for the year ending in September. That’s the highest since observations began in 1900. The new mark was noted in the annual Arctic Report Card, released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Arctic centers on the North Pole and reaches into North America and Eurasia. “Warming is happening more than twice as fast in the Arctic than anywhere else in the world. We know this is due to climate change,” NOAA chief scientist Rick Spinrad told reporters in San Francisco at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Another record emerged for
sea ice, which appears when Arctic Ocean water freezes. When it reached its peak coverage in February, it was the lowest maximum extent since records began in 1979. The minimum ice coverage, reached in September, was the fourth lowest on record. The retreat of sea ice is considered a threat to animals like walruses, which use it for mating, giving birth and getting out of the water. Walruses can use land instead to leave the water, but they are crowding onto beaches where a
stampede can be devastating for calves, two editors of the report card told AP. Walruses have been hauling themselves out on land in northwest Alaska, a recent phenomenon, Martin Jeffries of the federal Office of Naval Research and Jackie Richter-Menge of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wrote in a joint email. Snow cover in June in both the North American and Eurasian parts of the Arctic was at the second lowest level since records began in 1967. Reduced snow cover lets more sunlight through to the land, which absorbs the energy and gets warmer. Since 1979, the extent of June snow cover has been dropping by 18 percent per decade, the study said. (ap)
International
US spacewalkers will aim to move stalled rail car
MIAMI - Two American astronauts will step out on a short spacewalk Monday to move a stalled rail car that is stuck outside the International Space Station, NASA said. Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Tim Kopra will float out of the orbiting lab to move the mobile transporter rail car “a few inches,” NASA said in a statement on Sunday. Once they coax it to its new position on the station’s truss, it will be “latched in place and electrically mated to the complex.” NASA television coverage of the outing begins at 6:30 am (1130 GMT) and the spacewalk should start by 8:10 am (1310 GMT). The spacewalk should last three hours, about half as long as a typical spacewalk. The problem began last week when the mobile transporter rail car, a piece of moveable equipment that is attached to the Canadarm2 robotic arm, began to move to another work site.
The cause of the stall remains unclear, but “experts believe it may be related to a stuck brake handle,” according to ISS mission integration and operations manager Kenny Todd. Engineers at mission control in Houston have been unable to robotically move it back into place. If the brake was somehow inadvertently engaged, it may be an easy task to unstick it. The astronauts may then turn to a few other get-ahead tasks as part of their ongoing maintenance and upgrades of the ISS. NASA described the job as a “cautionary measure” that needs to be done ahead of the arrival of the Russian Progress supply ship on Wednesday. The US space agency announced last week that an unplanned spacewalk would likely be necessary, and mission managers decided after meeting Sunday to go ahead with the outing on Monday. (afp)
Ancient human ancestor may have persisted through Ice Age
MIAMI - After years of studying a mysterious thigh bone from a cave in China, scientists said Thursday they believe it represents an ancient species of human that persisted much longer than previously thought. The 14,000-year-old bone was uncovered in 1989 in Maludong, known as the Red Deer Cave. The trove of fossils it was initially found with went unstudied until 2012. The partial femur, though relatively young in age, looks like the bones of far older species like Homo habilis and early Homo erectus that lived more than 1.5 million years ago, said the study in PLOS ONE. “Its young age suggests the possibility that primitive-looking humans could have survived until very late in our evolution, but we need to careful as it is just one bone,” said co-author professor Ji Xueping from the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in China. Until now, scientists believed that the only pre-modern humans
who survived in what is now Europe and Asia were Neanderthals and Denisovans, both of which disappeared some 40,000 years ago. They are believed to have vanished soon after modern humans entered the region, but the new bone suggests another primitive human could have survived far longer, perhaps until the end of the last Ice Age. “The new find hints at the possibility a pre-modern species may have overlapped in time with modern humans on mainland East Asia, but the case needs to be built up slowly with more bone discoveries,” said co-author Darren Curnoe from the University of New South Wales. The thigh bone is small, with a thin shaft much like the bones of Homo habilis, which lived 1.52.8 million years ago. The individual would have weighed only about 110 pounds (50 kilograms), which was quite small for pre-modern and Ice Age human standards. (afp)
International
Bali News
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
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Christmas and New Year’s celebrations
Police target fireworks and illegal alcohol
SINGARAJA - In anticipation of the misuse of fireworks, firecrackers and illegal alcoholic beverages over the holidays, the Buleleng Police have started approaching both urban and rural communities to provide guidance and direction to the public, so that young people are not left unattended and turn to explosives or alcohol, both of which could cause harm. Chief of Buleleng Police Quick Response Unit, Wayan Parta said that the police are appealing to fireworks retailers to buy their merchandise from official distributors to avoid shoddy products from getting onto the streets. “We’ve been patrolling fireworks merchants on Jalan Diponegoro in Singaraja, where most merchants already have a license. We’ve taken preventive
actions in every region of Buleleng,” said Parta with permission from the Chief of Buleleng Police, Harry Haryadi. Parta explained that many people in Buleleng equate New Year celebrations with the use of firecrackers and the consumption of alcohol and that that unavoidable crowds will gather to enjoy the night with a party. “Every region is also being
jointly secured by the police station of each subdistrict in an effort to prevent chaos early on, so that the mayority of people can enjoy the excitement of New Year with their family and friends,” he said. He emphasized that the use of assembled cannons will not be tolerated. “Within the past year, there haven’t been any commotions caused by the use of firewors and assembled cannons, nevertheless we are still making a public appeal to not use home made explosives as these are officially prohibited. If any such devices are found, there will be consequences,” he affirmed. (kmb34)
IBP/Dewa Kusuma
Chief of Buleleng Police Quick Response Unit, Wayan Parta
The 8th Denpasar Festival; food vendors requested to use paper
Workers prepare stage for the eighth Denpasar Festival (Denfest) that will be held later this month.
IBP/Wawan
DENPASAR - Preparations are underway for the eighth annual Denpasar Festival (Denfest) that will be held later this month. The committee has prepared everything for the success of this annual celebration and the venue itself is about 30 percent completed. This year the festival organizers are requesting that food vendors use paper plates. Committee secretary of the Denpasar Festival who is also Division Head of the Economic Affairs of the Denpasar Municipality, Made Saryawan, said that the culinary portions of the festival is being arranged more professionally with clean-up being made easy. “We are asking that all food outlets serve their dishes on paper plates, as was done during the Sanur Village Festival,” said Saryawan. One prospective merchant, however has complained about having to use paper, saying that it will cost more. He explained that he is used to using ingka (baskets) covered in banana leaf to serve his food. “Why must we use paper when the combination of ingka and banana leaves is more eco-friendly? he asked. Responding to this complaint, Saryawan said that the committee is not requiring vendors to use paper but that based on certain studies, the use of paper is more pratical and allows people freedom of movement instead of having to bring the based back to the vendor. “This way people can just toss out their plates,” said Saryawan. As for the cost of buying paper plates, Saryawan said that because vendors are not being charged to set up shop at the festival nor for the use of other facilities, and because everything has been prepared by the committee: “there should be no reason for vendors to raise their prices during the festival,” he said. Another aspect of this year’S Denfest that differs from previous years, is the music. “This year’s Denpasar Festival will feature a jazz festival to appeal to jazz lovers in Denpasar,” said Saryawan. (kmb12)